Grace Ra Kim

Grace Ra Kim is a doctoral student in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory, focusing on decision-making systems under uncertainty for space traffic management and space situational awareness for satellite constellations.

Kim graduated cum laude with high honors in engineering sciences from Harvard University. She also holds a master’s degree in advanced computer science from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Marshall Scholar. Her research interests lie at the intersection of space traffic management, autonomous systems and space policy.

Kim’s passion for aerospace is reflected in her diverse experiences in collegiate engineering teams, industry and research. As chief engineer of the Harvard Satellite Team, she guided the design, construction and operation of a 2U CubeSat, culminating in its selection for a NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative launch. While at SpaceX, she designed flight components that are currently flown onboard the Starlink V2 Mini satellites to mitigate satellite brightness for optical astronomy. During her master’s studies, she researched federated learning (FL) on satellite constellations and developed AutoFLSat, a novel autonomous FL algorithm that reduced overall FL aggregation time by leveraging satellite-specific communication infrastructures.

Beyond her academic pursuits, Kim is passionate about connecting science, industry and public engagement. She aims to collaborate with policymakers to inform space law and one day work toward standardizing protocols for global space traffic management. She enjoys exploring the intersection of AI and aerospace, bringing together expertise from both fields to solve pressing challenges in the space domain.